Lights Over Chicago
by PureHatTrick952
Summary: When someone who means so much to Jake disappears without a trace, how will he deal with the stress and anxiety? And what will become of the person? Please read and review!
1. Chapter 1

I hope you enjoy it. Oh, and by the way, sorry if this chapter seems as though it moves slowly. I needed to get some of the character introductions out of the way. Please, I encourage you to leave a review giving me your thoughts.

CHAPTER I.

"Hey baby," Jacob Baker said to his girlfriend, walking up behind her and putting his arms around her waist. It was just after dismissal on that blissful last day before spring break and she was standing with a couple of her friends on the front steps of the high school building.

Her full name was Alexa Nicole Spennata, but she was known by friends as Alexa or A-Spen. She was a pretty young lady. Her eyes were a very dark green color with a tiny ring of hazel around the pupils, and her hair was a medium shade of brown. She was fairly small, standing at about five feet two inches, but slim in outward stature. She wore a garnet colored sweatshirt with the hem of a white lace cami peeking out from underneath, black opaque leggings which went down to her feet, and tall black sheepskin boots.

"Hey," she replied happily, "what's all this about? You're not usually this affectionate when we're around other people."

He shrugged.

"Are you saying you don't want me to?"

"No, I'm just saying that you don't usually do this when we're around other people." she said, putting her hands on his.

"I think it's cute," one of the other girls noted. This was Alex Lana Turaco. Her first name was only one letter off of Alexa's, and, indeed, they shared some similar characteristics. Her eyes were a similarly dark shade of green and she possessed the same kind smile that Alexa did, but Alex's hair was a rich and radiant blond. She was a vibrant and perky girl who was "not afraid to enjoy life" as described once by Alexa. But she was always willing to listen to problems and console those upset about things, especially within her circle of friends. She wore a black North Face sweatshirt and skinny dark wash jeans tucked into chocolate brown sheepskin boots

"Thank you, ALEX," Jake said deliberately but lightheartedly, "at least somebody here appreciates it."

Alexa rolled her eyes. Alex smiled.

"Corinne, I see you're feeling better," Jake said in the other girl's direction. This was Corinne Calandra Curciano. Despite her name being a mouthful to say, Corinne rarely had very much to say. She was extremely quiet, but polite, and almost always in a good mood, although it was difficult to tell as she rarely said anything about it. Her eyes were a dark chocolate color, her hair was a lighter shade of brown. Cuteness was her main appeal, but once she opened up, she was a very airy and lighthearted soul. She wore a grey, tight fitting long sleeve t-shirt and a pair of jeans tucked into, what else, a pair of boots.

"I am," she acknowledged, "and it didn't make things better that Ryan and I got into a big fight the day before I caught whatever it was that I did. I missed him so much over that week when all I could do was just lie in bed."

"Have you talked to him since?" Alex asked.

"Yeah," she replied, "he came to my house on Friday to apologize. He said that he missed me too much and that he was really worried about me."

They talked on for a long while, and, eventually, Jake found his way back to the Baker residence.

When he walked through the front door, he found the house surprisingly empty. It then clicked that his parents were out of town for a little while with the others. This was no matter to him. He loved having the house to himself. Kicking off his shoes, he sprawled out on the couch, watching some rerun of the previous night's Chicago Blackhawks game.

Somewhere between the second and third periods, he plugged his cell phone into the charger plug sitting on the end table next to the couch; it had died two nights before, and he had just never brought himself to charge it.

Seconds after sticking the metal prongs into the charging slot, the phone buzzed on the end table for about thirty seconds straight. He flipped it open and read the screen:

15 NEW MESSAGES

Many of these messages were small talk and generally small matters, including a couple from his parents. There was one, however, that caught his eye.

It read:

RESTRICTED

U have something I want.

There was something particularly creepy and eerie about the phrasing of the sentence, despite the fact that it was five simple words. But he simply deleted the text, considering it nothing more than a harmless prank.

Tired after a busy week, he turned off the TV, closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep, the silence, itself, singing him to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**NOTE: If possible, please review this piece of work. It's the only way I can know what's working and what's not and things like that. Thank you!

CHAPTER 2.

The sky became gray and cloudy as the temperatures fell that night. Jake was at an annual party which always took place on the night of the night before Spring Break officially began.

He had gone with Alexa, no surprise, considering that she went almost everywhere he went outside of school. It was no burden for him, though; he loved spending every minute he could with her.

The night rolled along. Both Jake and Alexa found the opportunity to unwind and have some fun refreshing and relaxing.

Somewhere amidst the hours of chatting with people and just enjoying the event, Jake received another bizarre text message.

It read:

RESTRICTED

U have something I want.

U have something I need.

I always get wat I want.

"Who's that from?" Alexa asked, coming up to him from behind.

"Uh, nobody," he replied, "just some random person."

Before he could slide his phone shut, Alexa noticed another message in his inbox.

NATALIE

thank u so much, Jake 3 I'll meet u at 6.

"Jake," she said, "when were you with Natalie?"

"Uh, just this past Tuesday," he answered, "why?"

"I'm just asking because you never told me you were meeting up with her," she added, her tone becoming a bit more confrontational, something that was very rare in her case.

"It's no big deal, baby," he asserted.

"Who else was with you?" she continued.

"Nobody," he admitted, "but really--"

"So it was just you and her?" she asked, pushing his arm off of her and turning around to face him.

"Yes, but Alexa, just listen. I was--"

"What could you have possibly been doing with her?"

"I'm trying to tell you, but you won't listen!" he said.

At this point, both of their voices had begun to raise, and it caught the attention of some of the others at the party, including Corinne and Alex.

"I'm really not interested!" she said at him, "the point is that you were with her without telling me!"

"God, Alexa, I don't have to tell you about every little thing that I do in my life!" he responded back at her.

"You do when it involves you being alone with another girl!" she shot back.

"You're such a little brat, Alexa!" he yelled at her, escalating the dispute, "It pisses me off so much when you get like this!"

"And you always make me cry!" she answered, tears, indeed, welling up in her eyes, "you're such a jerk!"

"See, this is why I would rather spend an hour with her when she's upset about breaking up with her boyfriend than a few minutes with you!" he said in a hurtful manner.

To this, Alexa had no response. Instead, she walked back around to the front of the house, on her way home. As she left, she started to cry. Corinne followed her.

Jake stood there. By now, almost everybody at the party had stopped talking and taken notice of the whole ordeal. There was silence.

He realized that the best course of action was to take his leave. He slipped through an opening in the crowd of people who had gathered around the two, trying not to look anybody in the eye as he left. On his way out, he passed by Alex who gave him a concerned look. But she did not follow him, feeling that nothing she could say would help.

On his way home, his cell phone buzzed in his pocket.

1 NEW MESSAGE

He opened it.

RESTRICTED

I am getting closer to her.

I will get what I want.


	3. Chapter 3

Amidst all that had happened the night before, the creepy text messages were lost on Jake. He tried not to think about Alexa as he went for a morning jog the following day. Alex accompanied him, as they took a route which led them along a scenic view of the surrounding landscape.

After a few miles, they slowed to a walk.

"So...what was with last night?" she asked, readjusting the hairband holding her ponytail together.

"I don't know," he answered, "Alexa was just being difficult. She can be such a little brat sometimes."

"What was she mad at you for?'

"She was angry about me going to meet Natalie to study for the physics midterm without her."

Alex gave him a look which clearly showed that she was not fully convinced by his answer.

"What?" he asked her indignantly, "that's all we were doing, Alex. Just studying."

Still not fully convinced, she decided not to pursue the issue any further.

"I just don't get it, Alex," Jake said.

"What?"

"I don't get why Alexa would get so mad," he continued, "I mean, it's not like I cheated on her or anything."

Alex cocked her head slightly, this time giving him a look of slight incredulity.

"Jake," she asserted, "you were with another girl without her. Now, I'm not saying that you did anything with Natalie, and if you did, that's none of my business. And--"

"But I didn't--"

"Hold on, let me finish," she continued.

"--and she just got a bit jealous. It's a girl thing."

"Got it," he answered, and with that, they jogged onwards, talking about various other subjects.

When he returned home, he was greeted by the sight of Natalie standing outside the front door.

"Hey, girl," he said, "what's up?"

"Not much," she replied, lightly flipping back her gorgeous auburn colored hair, revealing her kind and sincere light brown eyes, "I just came by to apologize."

"What for?"

"Jake, I was at Greg's party last night," she said, "I heard you and Alexa fighting and, from what I gathered, it was pretty easy for me to assume why. I never meant to mess things up between you two..."

She hung her head slightly.

"Natalie, it's sweet of you to come by like this, but you shouldn't be sorry," he assured her, "Alexa was just in a bad mood yesterday and blew things way out of proportion."

"Still, I kinda feel responsible," she added, "I just wanted to make sure that you weren't mad at me or anything."

"I'm not," he said, smiling, "trust me."

"How's she doing?" Natalie asked.

"I haven't talked to her since last night," Jake replied, "and I think I'll wait for a little while before I try to. She just needs some time to herself."

"Yeah, probably," she agreed.

"Well, anyway, I just wanted to make sure that we were cool," she continued, "I gotta go, but I'll see you later."

She left, continuing down the sidewalk.

Jake walked through the front door of his house, noticing a blinking message light on the cordless phone stand which sat on the counter of the kitchen. He pressed play.

"Jake," a voice said, "it's Alexa's mother. Alexa went out last night, but she never came home. Her father and I were wondering if you knew anything about where she is or where she could have gone. We have tried calling her cell, but it is either off or dead. If you could give us a call back, that would be great. We're getting worried."

With that, the message ended. For the second time in two days, Jake was left standing speechless. Then again, there was very little to be said, anyway.


	4. Chapter 4

After dialing and receiving several frantic calls, it became clear to Jake that nobody had any idea where Alexa had gone. No one had seen her since the previous night. After hearing that Jake had not the slightest clue regarding her whereabouts, her parents filed a missing persons report.

Nobody had mentioned that Alexa had not left the party alone. Corinne had followed her, having been a close friend of Alexa's for years and knowing that she was going to need somebody to talk to after she had calmed down.

It just so happened that Corinne's parents were away that week at some medical conference in Philadelphia and were completely unaware that their daughter was missing.

Natalie, who was Corinne's neighbor across the street, had noticed that she had not returned home, but did not think of much of it until she heard that Alexa was missing. She had seen the two leave the party, but she was unaware she was innocently involved in the argument.

The next morning, Jake was asked by a police officer for a descriptions of both Alexa and Corrine as well as his knowledge of their final whereabouts as he was one of the last people to have seen the two. From her demeanor, it was obvious that the officer had questioned many a witness many times before.

"So how tall is Alexa?" she asked, pen and paper in hand.

"Uh, about five one-five two," he replied, surprised that he remembered such a precise statistic.

"And Corinne?"

"She's about the same."

"And when was the last time you saw either one of them?"

"I saw them both as they left a party two nights ago," he answered.

"And you haven't heard from either one since?""

_"News flash, lady," Jake thought to himself, "If I had heard from either one of them since, we wouldn't be doing this!"_

"No," he responded, "no, I haven't heard from either one of them."

She wrote this down, curiously taking at least thirty seconds to down a one word answer.

"We'll do our best to find them," she assured him.

"Thank you," he said, standing up and shaking her outstretched hand.

She left, exiting through the front door. He laid back on the couch, folding his arms over his chest. He was so worried about both Alexa and Corinne.

He tried to remember what the last thing he had said to Alexa had been. Then, it clicked. The last things he had said to her: "you're such a brat" and "I would rather spend an hour with Natalie when she's upset about breaking up with her boyfriend than a few minutes with you!". In the course of a few hours, he had gone from feeling angry to worried to ashamed.

Eventually he dozed off, the silence, once again, lulling him to sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

Alexa awoke, her eyes adjusting to the darkness in which she was contained.

She could not hear anything, but that did not matter to her. She instinctively began feeling the area around her to gain an understanding of where she was.

As her eyes began to grow accustomed to her surroundings, she could see that she was in a relatively small room. There was a small sliver of yellowish natural light billowing into the room from somewhere, but she was not concerned with that at the time.

Just then, her eyes came to rest on a body form lying on its side about ten feet from where she was.

It was Corrine.

It was at that moment that she slowly opened her eyes, instantly crying out as a shockwave of pain shot through her back.

"Corinne!" Alexa said, crawling on her hands and knees up to her, "Corinne, what's wrong?"

"It's my back," she answered quietly, her tiny figure noticeably tightening up as spasms gripped the muscles in her back, "if I don't take medication, then I get the worst pain in it that lasts for hours and hours."

Doing her best to ignore the spasms, she scanned, with her eyes, around the darkened room.

"Alexa..." she said, anxiety in her tone, "...where are we?'

"I don't know, Corinne," Alexa responded, trying to sound as calm as possible. She knew that she needed to in order to keep Corrine calm.

Another great wave of back pain coursed through Corinne's fragile figure, and she cried out again.

Just then, Alexa remembered the vague memories of the night when she and Jake had fought at the party. She could not recall, however, anything about the period of time after she had left.

"rinne," she said to her, calling her by her nickname, "do you remember anything about the night of Greg's party?"

After another wave of pain shot through her back, Corinne attempted to answer Alexa's question to the best of her ability.

"Well," she answered, "I...I remember that you had a fight with Jake. Then you left and I think you were crying."

"Anything else?"

"I left with you...and...then..."

She paused.

"...and then...I...can't remember."

She closed her eyes, trying to forget about the pain which caused her thin body to seemingly go into spasms.

Alexa closed her eyes also, still trying to dig deep into her memory. Yet, she could not conjure up a viable memory of that missing time period.

"_Why can't I remember how we ended up here?" she thought to herself, "okay, I can remember leaving the party and Rinne following me. Then..."_

Her eyes grew wide.

"_Oh, God."_

"Corinne..." she said, her voice shaking, "we've been kidnapped."

Corinne opened her eyes immediately.

"What?"

"We've been kidnapped. A man...a man attacked us on the way home from Greg's party. He had a cloth in his hand and...I don't remember what happened past that."

What she did not tell Corinne was that the man who attacked them had committed several kidnappings and murders over the past two years in the Chicago area. He always texted or called those who were close to his victims just before committing the deed. He smothered his victims with chloroform, took them to a secluded location, and left them there to die, returning on occasion to observe without being observed. He had been dubbed the "White Light Killer" because of using an extremely bright light to stun his victims. He was unable to reach for it in the case of ambushing the two. And here Alexa and Corinne were, locked away in some abandoned building, and in his clutches.

Suddenly, a wave of pain tore through Corinne's body, this one topping the others by far.

This time, however, she did not merely cry out; she screamed. Whether she was screaming due to the pain or the circumstances, Alexa was taken aback. She had never heard Corinne in distress before, much less heard her scream.

Her screams covered up the sounds of approaching footsteps. Neither heard them, but they were there, slowly creeping nearer and nearer to the door.


End file.
